Smith's Fort

Please Note: Tours at Smith's Fort are given on an as needed rolling basis. The last tour of the day will begin no later than 4:00pm.

Smith’s Fort is the site of Captain John Smith’s proposed “New Fort” and is located directly across the James River from Jamestown. The site still has earthworks that mark the spot of the unfinished fort site partially completed in 1609 before being abandoned.

The manor house on the property was built for Jacob Faulcon c.1765 and retains much of its original pine woodwork.

In 1886, the property, then called Gray’s Creek Farm, was purchased by a collective group of African American families including Bolling Morris, John and Carter Hardy and Robertson Simmons. By the 1920s, Mr. Morris was the sole owner and he eventually sold it via an agent to John D. Rockefeller, Jr. Smith’s Fort was acquired by Preservation Virginia in 1933 and has operated as a museum ever since.